Cleaning and painting steel wheels

[dotcentral]

Between both trucks, I have 9 ford steel wheels. I would like to take the 4 best wheels, get them cleaned up, painted, and get the tires remounted black walls out, new valve stems, and balanced to put on the 66.

Seems like the stock wheel color is wimbleton white, or close to it, but I'm thinking I'd like to do satin black. My wheels look a little rough, so black might help hide the flaws. Doubt I will want to pay for powder coating, so probably paint with rustoleum. Or is there a better low buck alternative?

What will be my best bet to prep the wheels on the cheap? Strip the wheels with paint remover, sand with a drill attachment, or something else? I don't have a sandblaster myself, so I'd have to pay to get it done, so trying to avoid that.

Any ideas would be helpful.

[Greg D]

They clean up pretty good with a wire brush on an angle grinder. I painted mine with Duplicolor red, seems to hold up pretty well. If you can talk the Mrs into letting you (or grab a cheapy at a garage sale) use high heat paint and then bake them in an electric oven for awhile (the can should say how long to "apply heat").

[cdherman]

You' d be amazed how much of the ugly rust is just superficial -- after paint, or even better, powder coat, you'll see very little pitting.

Here in Kansas City, Cross Midwest Tire sends out to a powder coating place that will do black for $20 each. They acid dip them -- you don' t even have to prep the rims at all. That's right, $80 for a set! And they are nice.

You might want to call some tire places that work with trucks and big rigs -- these wheels see a lot of salt in some parts of the country and a fresh powder coat is desired by some of the trucking companies as opposed to replacing the rims or running rusty ones.

Good luck.....

[unitmatt]

I took and blasted my factory Ford rims and painted them Wimbleton White and mounted new tires on them
and they look really good .I'll send you a picture if you want.

[GLindley]

Since rims have quite a few differing ridges and contours, imprefections probably would NOT show as much as say, the doors and the truck bed sides. Gloss black tends to show every imperfection that is on the item that it is painted on. Gloss white tends to hide imperfections. The prep work on an all black vehicle has to be absolutely perfect, or even the slightest imperfection shows.

[dotcentral]

Gene, I know what you mean about Black showing imperfections. White and black as well are bad about showing dirt.

I rattle canned a couple of wheels satin black on the truck (i'll be changing those tires soon) and it helped the looks quite a bit. I can't imagine the correct white color would look near as good. but that might change if I put the hub caps back on. Guess I should do that and take another look.

[blackagatha]

eh, I've always thought white was pretty good for dirt... especially an off-white, as long aas you don't rub the dirt off in spots... Granted, a tan/Brown truck would NEVER need to get washed...

[DanSanDiego2000]

A great option to consider is Spray Appliance Epoxy. It is not paint, but Epoxy, and shouldn't oxidize, stain, and chip like paint. I took the time, money and effort to powder coat my wheels on my '65 CC, but when it came to the '67 flatbed wheels, powdercoating seemed like an expensive route.

SO, scrub your wheels, degrease 'em, let them dry thoroughly, and paint them with Appliance Epoxy Paint. Available in Gloss White, Gloss Black, Almond, etc., it is intended to restore/repaint appliances to glossy, hard, smooth and durable finish.

I love the powdercoating because it doesn't oxidize, etc., but the Appliance Epoxy seems to look just as good, rinse off nicely, and hold up to sunlight (so far.... they've been outside in the SoCal sunshine for almost a year).

It sprays on nicely, flows nicely, takes extra time to dry (which allows the thicker, stickier epoxy to flow nicely) and as long as you apply it in multiple coats, not too heavily each time, you can build up a very forgiving, thick finish, without runs. As obvious as it sounds, don't get carried away on thickness of coats. Take your time, coat the wheel (laying flat on its back), and you should be impressed with the results.

About $5 a can, the Rust-oleum Specialty Appliance Epoxy Ultra-Hard enamel comes in 12oz cans, from Home Depot, Gloss White #7881, or Gloss Black #7886 (those happen to be 2 colors I have at my shop, others available at Home Depot, too).

Good Luck!!

Dan

[ezernut9mm]

^^^never thought about that, good idea!^^^

i had two stock `15x5.5 rims blasted and powder coated a "generic" white.
they came out real nice.

[dotcentral]

I used the off-white color appliance spray paint on a previous truck, was a little darker/tan looking than wimbledon white, but looked pretty close. Can't say how well it held up as I sold the truck soon afterwards.

Thanks for the suggestions.